It's Plausible
by BorntoBeChosen
Summary: Mister Howard Wolowitz has the good life, lives with his mother rent free, doesn't have a girlfriend, is one Hell of an engineer and is in love with his best friend. Yes, Mister Howard Wolowitz has the good life.
1. Chapter 1

"I will not say that I am opposed to it but I will not say that I agree to it either." Dr. Cooper said while looking down at his menu, tonight was Chinese night and he was rather hungry.

"Well Sheldon, Raj and I think it'd be a nice change of pace if instead of getting the Orange chicken we should try the Sweet & Sour Chicken. It's the same price, same amount, ultimately it'd just be something new and you might like it."

Leonard tried to persuade Sheldon, all the while Howard was just staring off into the distance.

Tonight, just like every night, was routine, the only thing that seemed to change was the Sweet & Sour Chicken.

Howard had just came to terms with the fact that his life was becoming stagnant to him, he lived with his mother, he had no girlfriend and to top it all off, he was in love with his best friend.

Howard would never let himself indulge in the fact that he wanted Raj, there really was no reason. Raj was happy just being Howard's friend and that's all Howard wanted. Raj to be happy. Be it with him or without him.  
"...ward...Howard...HOWARD." Howard looked up to Raj's eyes staring at him, Raj had been calling Howard for five minutes.  
"Oh, yes?" Howard said demurely, averting his eyes to a cheap Chinese painting of a dragon on the wall behind Raj.

"Jeez, what am I? Spinach and fish curry?" Raj said with smile, trying to create a humorous conversation with his buddy.

"Well you certainly smell as such." Leonard suddenly interjected with a snigger while giving the waiter everyone's order.

"Oh Ho, very funny Leonard, I'll have you know I lather myself every night with my Darth Maul Shampoo and body wash. It smells like cherries." Raj said, then smelled his hair with a dreamy, happy smile.

Howard suddenly looked at Raj, imagining him naked and covered in bubbles with the small hint of cherries. If Howard hadn't of suddenly thought of his mother, his face would be the color of a cherry.

Raj took notice of Howard's sudden head movement towards himself but didn't really pay attention for too long because then Howard just went to staring off again.

"I'm having some real trouble with my parents lately,"Raj said with an annoyed sigh, he was always trying to keep a conversation.

"Oh look, another conversation I have to feign concern over..." Sheldon said under his breath, Leonard gave him a look then asked Raj what was wrong.

"Well since my 28th birthday is coming up next week, my parents have really been on my case about getting married. How can I marry a woman when I have to be intoxicated just to have a real conversation with her?"

"That is completely irrelevant, my father did it for 20 years." Sheldon said, seriously.  
"Well just...ah I don't really know what to tell you buddy. Go gay?" Leonard said jokingly. Howard was drinking his Raspberry iced tea at the time and proceeded to choke at the word 'gay'.

"If only life were so easy, Leonard." Raj said with a far off look just when their food came to the table.

Howard looked at Raj immediately, he couldn't tell if he was being serious but damn him for making Howard hopeful.


	2. Wrath of Kahn

"HOWARD, WHO IS CALLING AT THIS UNGODLY HOUR?!" Howard's mother screamed out, it was only ten o'clock at night.

"I DON'T KNOW, MA. I HAVEN'T ASKED THEM YET." Howard retorted hotly to his mother, he'd been playing Grand Theft Auto for a good four hours now.

"WELL ANSWER IT, HOWARD."

Howard sighed with annoyance, paused his game and answered his phone.  
"Hello?"

"Hey, buddy." Raj spoke from the phone with happy ring in his voice, Howard's ears went a bit red from hearing the attractive voice in the phone.

"Uh-oh hey Raj, something up?" Howard said trying not to sound nervous.  
"Sheldon, Leonard and I want to go see the showing of Wrath of Khan their having at midnight, you in?"

Before Howard even had a chance to think his mouth blurted out a happy yes in reply, he was silently cursing his mouth for reacting before his brain.

"Alright buddy, do you want me to pick you up? I'm near your house and I don't mind taking you home."

"Uh yeah that'd be greatly appreciated."

"Okay, see you in five." And with that, Raj hung up.

Howard looked up at the ceiling with a defeated look, ever since he figured out that he wanted to bed his best friend he'd tried to be strong enough for his own sanity.

But now he was realizing that he sincerely can't say no to the Indian man.  
"MA." Howard screamed out from his room.

"WHO WAS ON THE PHONE? IS AMERICA UNDER ATTACK? DO WE HAVE TIME TO PACK THE CHINA?"

"IT WAS RAJ, MA. WE'RE NOT UNDER ATTACK AND THE CHINA IS ALWAYS PACKED UP."

"WHAT DID RAJ WANT?"

"I'M GOING TO SEE A MOVIE WITH THE GUYS, RAJ IS COMING TO PICK ME UP AS WE SPEAK."

"AT THIS HOUR? BRING A JACKET IT'S COLD OUTSIDE, I DON'T WANT YOUR ASTHMA ACTING UP."

"ALRIGHT, MA." Howard said, he had expected his mother to have a bit more fight in her. Howard looked to his right to see lights outside his window, true to his word, Howard grabbed a jacket and his wallet and walked out the door.

"Hey buddy." Raj said with a smile as Howard sat down in the front seat.

"Hey man."

"Good, you're wearing a jacket, I was going to make you go back and get one if you weren't. Tonight's windy, you're asthma would be having a party." Raj said while pulling out of Howard's driveway.

"Yeah Ma had me grab one before I left."

"How hard was it for her to let you come?" Raj asked with a chuckle.

"Not hard at all, I think she's tired tonight." And that was the end of their conversation as they drove over to Leonard and Sheldon's apartment in comfortable silence.

Every now and then, Howard would sneak a peek at Raj's face or hands. He felt entirely too creepy for words but he couldn't help himself and Raj wasn't looking anyway so there was no harm done.

Howard suddenly had a thought of Raj putting his hands on Howard's bare chest softly, while giving Howard a cheeky grin.

Howard took in a sharp breath and could feel his ears burning, he silently thanked God for his bowl cut.

"You alright, buddy?" Raj had heard the sharp intake of breath and looked over quickly at Howard while trying to keep his eyes on the road.  
"Uh yeah, just had to sneeze no troubles, keep on driving." Howard was imagining his mother in a dominatrix outfit to try and get his mind away from the Thought of Raj.

"Well we're already here, dude."

"Ha, Oh yeah." Howard got out of the car nervously, Raj just looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

"Alright, alright. Let's go, dude." Raj said while Howard was fighting with the door to get his jacket out.

Raj had taken notice of Howard's nervousness but hadn't given much thought to it and just left it to his Jewish heritage.

The four friends met up in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, worked out everything, ordered their tickets and got on their way to the theater.  
The movie looked pretty good in Howard's opinion, the first time he'd ever watched Wrath of Khan was when he was 15 in his room with his stupid tv that had broken pixels so he could only see half of the movie from the side of the screen.

He got a new tv for Hanukkah that year anyway.  
But something that made this viewing of Star Trek II a little better was that Raj was sitting right beside him.

Raj had actually pressed his leg against Howard's on purpose. Howard just summed it up to the fact that it was cold in the theater and Raj was really cold but he couldn't help but have a stupid, little grin on his face.

"Even though it's late, why don't we get something to eat?" Leonard said, breaking Howard away from his train of thought.

"Uh yeah, why not?" Howard agreed.

"I only brought enough money for the movie ticket and a soda, dude." Raj said with a sad look.

"And I'm in the mood for pie too!" Raj said with annoyance, he really did just want some pie.

"I'll cover you, buddy, think of it as a thanks for the ride." Howard said without even thinking, again. In his mind he cursed but when he saw Raj give him a big smile he patted himself on the back.

"Then it's settled, we're going to get something to eat." Leonard said with a happy smile while Sheldon was arguing it would destroy his metabolism to eat at 2 AM.


	3. Wrath of Kahn's Asthma Part 2

"Dude, this pie is incredible." Raj said while eating the last bite left on his plate, they were in a diner just across from the movie theater. Howard nodded with a smirk at him, Howard himself had opted for a small thing of fries.

"Yes, I'd love to see Leonard to eat it." Sheldon said to Leonard , it was a piece of Creme pie.

"Haha, very funny Sheldon." Leonard said while rolling his eyes, Sheldon had made it his thing to joke about Leonard's lactose intolerance.  
"Yes I know, it was quite funny." Sheldon never got sarcasm, Howard chuckled under his breath.

"You ready to go, buddy?"

Raj said to Howard after he had paid, Howard nodded and could feel his ears heat up. Raj and Howard said goodbye to Leonard and Sheldon then were on their way to Raj's car, it was around 3 AM and there really wasn't anyone out.

"I never thought I'd be able to watch Wrath of Khan on the big screen and not only that but I got pie afterwards." Raj said on the way back to the car trying to strike up a conversation.

"Well tonight's just your night, my curry eating friend."Howard said, admiring the fact that Raj was smiling the whole night and Howard had been part of the reason he was.

"You bet it was, my Bat mitzvah boy." The two friends entered the car, the car had an aura of comfortable silence. It wasn't long before Raj had just pulled up to Howard's drive way and had to wake Howard up from sleeping.

"Hey buddy, hey...Howard, wake up." Raj began poking Howard in the face in order to wake him and Howard ended up waking with a jump.  
"Woah...oh bye, Raj." Howard was rubbing his eyes like a two year old while Raj let out a giant yawn.

"Bye, bye." And with that Howard stepped out of the car and Raj drove away to his warm bed.

"Shit." This would be the exact moment Howard realized that he left his jacket in the backseat of Raj's car after putting it in there before the movie. Howard's keys were in the pocket.

Along with his phone.

Howard's mom never kept a key outside in the fear that someone would find it and come in, so Howard decided to do the one thing he did not want to do.  
Knock on the door and wake his mother.

Howard knocked on the door three times, but to his surprise his mother wasn't heard behind the door in a split second.

Then Howard remembered another thing as of right now, his mother had just started taking strong sleeping pills for her anxiety.

The doctor said she'd be knocked out for a full nine hours.

Now Howard realized why his mother had let him go so easily earlier,she had taken her pills and was on the verge of being knocked out.

"Double shit." Howard said under his breath, now the asthmatic 27 year old was stuck outside in the cold wind till about 6 in the morning.

It was only 4 o'clock from what Howard's watch said.

Howard just decided to sit down on the porch bench and look up at the sky, he began thinking about his night with the guys but mostly about his time with Raj.

He remembered what it had been like with Bernadette, fun and happy.

But something...something was missing in Howard's life.

It was only when Raj got drunk one night and tried to make a pass on Bernadette and ended up kissing Howard that Howard realized he was in love with his best friend.

In a fit of denial, Howard had proposed to Bernadette but things just seem to go down hill from there until he finally couldn't do it anymore. He broke up with her, she'd done her best not to cry and walked away from him.

That was three months ago and they haven't spoken since. And surprisingly, Howard didn't regret a thing.

The wind began to pick up, it looked like it was about to rain as well.  
"Well looky here, triple shit." Howard said, he was really beginning to feel cold from the night air and could feel the air becoming thicker.

Howard began wheezing and coughing.

'Oh God,' he thought, 'this is just great.'

The wheezing began to worsen and Howard could feel his lungs tightening themselves up. It had been half an hour ago that he was asleep in Raj's car, content and comfy.

Now he was stuck out in the cold through a calamity of poor choices and mistakes.

Howard was shaking now from the stress on his lungs, his inhaler was in his jacket too.

'Dying from some windy weather, talk about manly.' Howard thought as he fell to floor and started to shake even more sporadically. Then to make matters even worse, it began to rain.

'Ding, ding, ding looks like we have a quadruple shit.' Howard thought as he began to drift off from lack of oxygen.

"Howard?!" Howard heard an Indian voice scream, then came time for sleep as Howard heard faintly the sounds of feet swiftly running towards him.

"...vere asthmatic attack due to harsh weather conditions. He seems to be stabilized but due to lack of oxygen, we're unsure of when Mr. Wolowitz might wake up." Howard heard a female voice calmly tell someone in the same room as him obviously by how loud the woman spoke.

He figured he was in the hospital, or dead and the hospital was his heaven.

"That would be right about now." Howard said with a smirk as he opened his eyes to the sterile white hospital room he was in.

Raj was sitting in the chair directly facing Howard's bed, there was an older woman Doctor standing above him. Howard's mother was outside screaming with the secretary about something, who knows.

Raj stood up slowly and walked over to the bed. He bent down over Howard, looked him in eyes and pulled him into a tight hug.

Howard was a bit shocked that Raj was so worked up about this, had it really been that bad?  
"..mmm...mmm..again." Raj said in Howard's neck.

"What's that, buddy?" Howard said hoarsely, his throat was throbbing and he was quite sure he'd be spitting blood for a while.

"I said, don't you ever do that to me again."


	4. Well, call me Sally

Howard was going insane. Literally.

Okay, maybe not insane...stir crazy? Yeah. Stir Crazy.

Howard's sudden asthmatic attack a week ago had been so incredibly serious that it granted him two weeks of leave from work. And sure that was fine and dandy in the beginning, but now Howard was just lonely and bored.

No one had visited him, no one had called and nobody even bothered to text him.

Not even Raj.

Howard was having the worst week of his life and to top it all off it'd happen again next week. He wouldn't ever admit it but Howard Wolowitz was a very sensitive man even if he was the only one oblivious to it.

He could understand Sheldon never contacting him, on account of him being bat shit crazy in Howard's mind, he supposed Leonard would at least text him something asking him if he were alright but he didn't and he wouldn't even think Penny had kept his number or would even try to get a hold of him.

But Raj not even talking to him? That was the real punch to the gut.

Howard had even gotten into the habit of laying next to his cell phone hoping it would ring or vibrate or _something_.

But no, here he was acting like a teenage girl, waiting for some boy to call her. He felt pathetic.

He didn't even have to charge his phone the whole week because no one tried to contact him.

He was so lonely, in fact, that he had begun to have conversations with his Yoda sock monkey he got when was twelve years old for Hanukkah. And Yoda seemed to be giving him sass.

"Yoda, do you think I'm pathetic?" Howard asked his little fabric buddy, he was turned on his side and positioned Yoda to look the same way at him.

"Answer that, you do not want me to." Yoda answered back, er well Howard answered himself.

"You might as well, I mean it's not like I can't take it." Howard said with a sigh.

"Live with your mother, you do. In love with your best friend, you are. Speaking to inanimate object, you are." Yoda kept listing things off without even pausing for air and everything on the list was absolutely true.

"Hey, hey, hey my mother lives with me." Howard jokingly said afterwards.

"To your Darth Maul bed sheets, tell that."

"Haha, very funny." Howard said, rolling his eyes in annoyance. He was starting to get a bit annoyed with him telling himself that he was pathetic through a piece of fabric with button eyes.

"Funny is that you have not noticed your phone has been on airplane mode since the movie you saw a week ago , what is." Yoda said, Howard paused and looked Yoda in the button eyes wondering if he were actually going crazy.

"What? You're joking. I've been checking that phone hourly and I haven't seen the airplane mode on once. And if it is you can call me Sally." Howard said, knowing for a fact that it couldn't possibly be on airplane mode. Could it?

"For yourself, look. Sally." Yoda told Howard.

"Fine, I will just to prove you wrong." The little blue airplane was right in it's place on Howard's phone, mocking him with it's bright, fluorescent color.

"Well, call me Sally." Howard said in disbelief at the fact that he hadn't seen that once since he'd been home, maybe he really was losing it.

"Already, I have." Yoda mocked him. Yeah, crazy.

Howard shut off his airplane mode and not even a second later his phone started vibrating and buzzing like it was some kind of epileptic child after playing a very fluorescent cartoon flashing vibrantly before their eyes.

5 messages from Penny, 6 messages from Sheldon, 6 messages from Leonard and...12 messages, 5 calls and 3 failed video chats from Raj.

Penny:

**Howard, where r u?**

**R u okay?**

**The guys r worried, well Leonard, Me & Raj r. **

**Howard, it's been a week.**

**Howard, Raj is freaking out.**

Sheldon:

**Howard, you missed Chinese food night.**

**Howard, you missed Halo night.**

**Howard, you missed Thai food night.**

**Howard, you have one strike.**

**Howard, answer my messages. **

**Howard, you have two strikes. I hope you're proud of yourself.**

Leonard:

**You alright, dude?**

**Raj told me you had a severe asthma attack, where are you?**

**Do you need help?**

**Dude,answer us.**

**This i****s getting ridiculous.**

**Come on dude, you're making Raj worried.**

Raj:

**Hey, my puffer fish friend, want me to come over today and keep you company after work? :)**

**Is that a no? :(**

**Dude?...**

**Earth to Howard, anyone home?**

**Howard, are you alright?**

**Howard, where are you?**

**Answer me, damn it.**

**You're scaring me, dude.**

**Come on, it's been three days.**

**Dude, where the hell are you? I've called you five times.**

**Don't die, dude...**

'Well,'Thought Howard,'This is a lot more than I expected, Hell even Sheldon expressed some kind of worried feeling towards me.'

Howard knew what he had to do.


	5. The Apology Conundrum

Howard Wolowitz knew exactly what to do in that moment.

He was going to drive his scooter to Sheldon and Leonard's house, tell them he was perfectly fine, tell Penny in his convincing heterosexual voice that he was perfectly fine if she wanted to join him then when she would say no he'd race to Raj's apartment and give him the best night he's ever had in America.

Too bad for Howard though, his friends had already beat him to the punch.

Howard only heard a faint knock on the front door as he was brushing his teeth, the sound of his mothers boisterous footsteps, however, took him out of his thoughts for a moment.

"HOWARD, YOUR FRIENDS ARE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR. THEY WANT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH THEM. SHOULD I TELL THEM TO ASK LATER?"The shrieking of his Mother made Howard flinch inwardly, no matter how old he was, his mothers grating voice would always be like nails on a chalkboard to him.

"FOR GODS SAKE MOTHER, I'M ALMOST 30 YEARS OLD!"

"OH EXCUSE ME, ."

"JUST TELL THEM THEY CAN COME UP, MA!" Howard sighed with annoyance, he was trying to put on some kind of clothes that didn't have chewbacca on them.

And just like that, one praying mantis, a blonde, a hobbit and an Indian all walked into a Jews bedroom.

"Damn!" Sheldon said as soon as he saw Howard standing by the bed. He handed Penny what looked like ten bucks and stared with anger at something.

"He thought you were transformed into a dalek." Leonard explained with his usual nervous stance.

"Is that what that weird robot thing's called?" Penny asked.

"**Yes**." Howard, Raj, Sheldon and Leonard all said at the same time.

"Well I bet you're all wondering what I've been doing for the past week.." Howard said after a couple of minutes of silence.

"Uh huh." Penny said while giving him her signature annoyed look.

"So we all know that I'm an engineer that's gone to space and seen the world from orbit..."

"You're not going to space again are you?!" Raj said suddenly, then shrinking back with a light hum at the sudden memory that Penny was there. Howard blushed a bit at the thought that Raj would worry about him going into space again.

"Ah no, no I'm not." Howard answered which got a relieved smile from Raj and Penny.

"Then could you please just get to the point, Howard? Today's new comic book day." Sheldon was getting restless like a child about having to wait.

"Ileftmyphoneonairplanemodeforaweekwithoutrealizin gitimsorry!"Howard had always had this nervous tick since he was a kid where he would speak too fast for anyone to understand him but his mother.

"Mind saying that in English, Hun?" Penny was now sitting in Howard's computer chair.

"I didn't realize that I left my phone on airplane mode for a week. I put it on airplane mode during the movie and I didn't turn it off till like an hour ago when sock monkey Yoda told me."

"Sock Monkey Yoda?" Penny said with a flip of her hair.

"I've been on strong medication for the past week, leave me be, woman!"

Howard sat down on the bed, rubbing his forehead lightly with his thumbs.

"Leonard, he's disappointed me once today and if he stops me from getting that new issue of Batman I will not hesitate to give you and him one strike." Sheldon was at his past his supposed point of patience and Leonard seemed to be against confrontation today.

"Well...alright, come on Sheldon...Penny you coming?" Sheldon was already out the door, Penny said her goodbyes and soon Howard was just alone with Raj.

"So uh...I missed you, buddy." Howard said with a nervous grin, Raj looked at him for a minute with a blank expression then smiled a cheeky grin.

"I missed you too, buddy, check your freaking phone next time." Raj's accent was music to Howard's ears and the hug that came after it was pretty good as well.

"Well since you've been cooped up in this house for a week, how about we go do something today?" Raj asked Howard with a grin and how was he supposed to say no to that?

"Uh yeah, just let me get ready real quick and then we can go." Howard didn't seem to notice that until now he was still wearing his pajama bottoms. As much as he loved his black silk shorts, he didn't think that others would like it too much. As Howard took off his silk shorts he could feel eyes watching him bend over, he tried not to blush but you know it's hard when someone's looking straight at your ass.

_Oh god..._

"Hey buddy, getting a good view back there?"Yes Howard, humoring the subject of your best friend checking out your ass is going to make your life so much easier.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was looking at your Green Lantern underwear. I have to get a pair, they're pretty cool, dude." Howard looked Raj in the eyes, for a moment, Howard thought of those eyes staring him down naked but had to reel himself away from that thought quickly before an even more uncomfortable situation would arise. His face was burning as he looked for a pair of pants, his hands were shaking slightly while he finally found a pair and pulled them up his legs.

"You alright, dude? You're shaking, should I get you your inhaler or something?"Rajs voice suddenly flooded Howards ear, Raj was now standing directly behind Howard. He was so surprised that he jumped and almost fell onto the floor but Raj grabbed him just in time to stop the pitiful action from happening.

"Uh oh no, no I'm alright. I'm gonna go brush my hair and um do something, just wait here." Howard got free of Raj's grip and ran into the bathroom feeling like the biggest girl a 28 year old man could be. Howard could still fell Raj's grip on his arm, the warmth still lingering against his body almost brought Howard to a rising problem if he hadn't of heard his mother's voice.

"HOWARD, ARE YOU ROUGH HOUSING IN THERE? DO I NEED TO CALL RAJ'S PARENTS AND ASK THEM TO TAKE HIM HOME?" Howard sighed in relief at the awakening shriek of his mothers voice, he had been holding his breath for a good 30 seconds while leaning against the door to his bathroom.

"NO MOM, I JUST SLIPPED A LITTLE!"

"ALRIGHT BUT IF YOU START ROUGH HOUSING, RAJ IS GOING HOME."

Howard had finally composed himself, brushed his hair like he said, took a piss and finally came out into his bedroom to see Raj laying on his bed playing with Sock Monkey Yoda.

"Go home, I have to?"Raj said in a terrible Yoda voice, he moved Yoda as he spoke like a muppet.

"Rough housing, if you start." Howard replied with a smirk, Raj cracked a grin from what Howard could see on the bed.

Howard just looked at Raj for a moment laying on his bed, he kind of liked it.

Actually, he liked it a lot.


End file.
